Founded in October 2013 as a South Korean premium audio company wholly owned by Dreamus, Astell&Kern launched as a high-end successor to iriver products, inheriting nine years of DAP research and development know-how from iriver (established 1999). The brand name combines 'Astell' (Greek for 'star') and 'Kern' (German for 'core'), symbolizing the company's mission to reach the core of music through original sound reproduction. After six Samsung employees left to create iriver in 1999, the legacy continued when Astell&Kern debuted the AK100 media player at CES 2013. The breakthrough came with the AK120 in May 2013, featuring dual Wolfson WM8740 DAC chipsets for independent per-channel signal reproduction, achieving incredibly deep and clear sound with minimal distortion. This dual-DAC innovation, combined with 64GB internal memory and dual memory card ports (192GB total capacity), positioned the AK120 as the premier high-resolution digital audio player for audiophiles. The limited edition AK120 Titan followed in December 2013, cementing Astell&Kern's reputation for portable high-resolution audio excellence and establishing them as the leading manufacturer of premium DAPs worldwide.